Mark,
When I said that I "swap out" thermometers, I only meant that sometimes I use one, and sometimes I use the other, depending on what I'm cooking on the top rack. One therm has a 9-inch stem, which is too long to use if I have a butt on the top rack, as the butt end of the therm butts up against the butt (so to speak). I use the brackets that came with the deep-fryer thermometers, normally used to mount the thermometer to the side of a pot during frying use, to prop the thermometer so that it doesn't block the vent hole. I've also occasionally made a small V shape from a couple of layers of heavy foil, run the thermometer through the small end, and propped the larger end over the vent hole like a pup tent so that the foil held the thermometer face up such hole wasn't completely blocked.
Let's see, as far as what I use in the WSM, I currently have:
-2 Polders, one of which I usually dangle (to the curve of the probe) in the top vent along with a deepfry therm so that they keep a check on each other. I set the Polder body onto a metal C-clamp that I place on the side of the lid handle.
-1 Taylor electronic thermometer (on the way from Amazon)
-2 Maverick ET-73 remotes, which I have decided that I love dearly. So far I'm only using one at a time. (I hook 'em onto previously-mentioned c-clamps)
-2 or 3 various deep-fry thermometers
-4 regular dial-type oven thermometers (2 of which are woefully off)
-2 Taylor "grill" thermometers which are essentially worthless. The theory is good, but first time I wiped them off, the numbers came right off the face of the dial onto the towel. /infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif
http://www.kitchencook.com/kitchen/Taylor_Grills_Fryers_Barbecue_Tools_26671.cfm
-1 mercury-based analog thermometer
In the offset trailer rig, I use the ET-73 or a Polder run under the lid or inside the upright door just to keep a check on the industrial thermometer in the horizontal section's body, along with a couple of old-fashioned oven thermometers. From experience I know that if the industrial therm shows 300, then at the top rack of the vertical I'm at about 225, at the cool end of the horizontal I'm at about 185, at the middle of the horizontal I'm at about 225, and at the warm side of the horizontal I'm at about 245. (I've GOT to better figure out the theories of tuning a pit...)
Hi, my name is Keri, and I'm a thermomaholic.
Keri C
Smokin on Tulsa Time
